CHAPTER 556: CHAPTER 556: GIANT DUST

"Done," Memphis’s voice echoed in the minds of all the lions present.

It was like a bucket of cold water on their heads in the middle of a hot desert.

They had all seen Ibadon reaching toward Kael after somehow dispatching Exalon.

They assumed that this was going to be the end.

Memphis’s voice sounded so angelic at the moment.

"Ten seconds left! Open the gates!" Memphis shouted.

At that same moment, a gigantic arm ascended from the rocky wreckage, the titanic palm was shaped like a blade, cutting out of the crust and forcefully pushing Ibadon away.

Exalon swung his palm trying to push Ibadon further away.

Warp booms were heard as thousands of heavenly gates opened up.

"NO NO NO NO NO!" Ibadon raged.

Exalon’s full body came up. His broad shoulders appeared like a cosmic bridge linking the horizon in the north to the one in the south.

He uses his whole body to block Ibadon’s view of what was happening on the other side.

"Go! Attack them all, kill them!" Ibadon’s handsome expression turned incredibly ugly as he ordered the remaining dragons to attack.

However, the dragons acted a bit sluggishly.

Those tier 7 lions had put up some serious combat power as they were working together with the rest of the lion kings; more than thirty thousand dragons were dead.

Casualties were on the lions’ side but it wasn’t up to that of the dragons. The lions had been fighting for their survival and the dragons were merely fighting because they were ordered to.

All that, added with Ibadon’s Cosmic Annihilation, and the number of dragons present had reduced to less than forty thousand.

A significant loss so great that it had them stunned and their morale was down.

’Useless! All of you!’ Ibadon thought to himself.

Only three seconds left.

Looking at the giant Exalon blocking his path to his revenge, Ibadon directed his wrath at him.

*Snap! Snap!*

Ibadon snapped the fingers on his two hands and summoned thousands of powerful Oblivion Beads.

They hung around him like the blades of the grim reaper, spinning with the same intensity as the black hole at the center of the galaxy.

The colossal Exalon snorted, focusing his last remaining eye on Ibadon. Never would he have imagined he would be able to face Ibadon like this.

His left arm, which had been replaced by the gauntlet, was pulled back slightly as though he was preparing to punch out.

Ibadon willed, and the beads instantly turned into black streams. They pierced large holes into Exalon’s large but battered body.

Still, Exalon never punched out.

One second left.

Ibadon’s face calmed down.

It was over.

The sound of gates opening and closing could not be heard anymore.

The planetary suppression was gone. Ibadon used his recovered senses to scan the whole crumbling sphere.

Apart from a few rogue lions here and there that were not up to fifty, all the lions were gone, leaving behind nothing but residual energy from heavenly gates.

Memphis was gone.

The tier 7s were gone.

The Anti-Primordial lions and the Primordial Supporters were gone.

Even Ma’abu was gone.

Most importantly, Kael was gone.

*Sigh!*

Ibadon’s dull red eyes changed colour to a chilling blue. He entered a state where all emotions were completely suppressed.

His heart was cold.

The abomination looked at Exalon who still stood high and mighty, his figure tall and imposing.

His body was so large that it could be seen clearly from outer space like a nation-sized giant.

The black cracks all over his body had dried up. Thousands of holes created by Ibadon’s oblivion beads riddled different parts of his skin.

All the while, Exalon had taken a wide stance that allowed his body to block Ibadon’s path as much as possible.

The left arm which was pulled back was not because he wanted to throw a punch, but because he wanted to let go of the Gauntlet.

And just as Exalon had intended, the area from his elbow down had disappeared.

He had shoved the gauntlet arm into one of the bigger heavenly gates from a couple of tier 7 lion kings and allowed the gate to close with his arm still in it.

Exalon’s arm was cut off and the gauntlet was now in the void of the Leonine Heavenly Realm.

As for Exalon himself...

The heart of the old warrior released no beat or rhythm. His chest did not rise, his blood did not flow.

Not even an exhale from exhaustion.

Exalon’s eye had grown dull.

He was dead.

"..."

"..."

The silence was heavy.

Even though the world was shattered to bits around them, the giant and the black caped man faced each other in silence.

With a quick scan, Ibadon saw that there was no soul in this gigantic body. What was left was a titanic husk

Perhaps, the gauntlet had devoured his soul first, or the oblivion beads had erased his soul.

Either way, Ibadon was aware that the death of this warrior was because of him.

’A reason to fight,’ Ibadon thought, staring down at his hands.

He was deeply disappointed in himself.

Despite all the preparations, he had still failed, how?

He shouldn’t have.

"That tail," Ibadon muttered, remembering the strange ordinary-looking tail that had been wrapped around the Primordial Lion’s neck.

If not for that tail and its strange power, Ibadon would have definitely succeeded.

He was so close.

Under the watch of Ibadon, the dragons, and many spectators from beyond, Exalon’s gigantic corpse began to deteriorate rapidly.

The body shifted slowly, turning to dust faster than it could transform back into his true form.

Soon, all that was left was a massive clump of grey dust that mixed with the wind and lesser gravity, soon to spread out and dilute with the crumbling planet itself.

There was nothing to plunder, nothing to take away, no benefit.

Everyone had lost something, but only the lions truly gained something since Exalon had let go of the gauntlet at the last moment for the lions.

Well, technically, Ma’abu was the only person who got what he wanted today.